A birthday per calendar :)

So, apparently today is my "star" birthday (according to the hindu calendar). So, this got us thinking about how solar and lunar calendars correlate. I've heard my dad talk about this (he's a serious astrology buff), but obviously it didn't stick :)

But why fear when Wikipedia is here! Which taught me the concept of a lunisolar calendar. And that intercalations are not just about adding a day for a leap year, but could also involve adding a week or even a month (like lunisolar calendars do every 2-3 years to match with the solar calendar). Which explains why solar and lunar birthdays are usually within a couple of weeks of each other.

Another interesting fact: apparently some lunisolar calendars can use the state of vegetation (depending on season, I guess) to determine when the leap month needs to be added! The Hindu calendar uses the phase of the moon to determine this.

This illustration of the hindu calendar simplifies a lot of the calculations of festival dates - which fall back by 11 days every year (because the lunar calendar has fixed months, but approximate years compared to the solar calendar).

Granville Island Vet Hospital - among the best!

After an almost sleepless night with Vodka constantly shaking his head trying to clear his ears, I hopped on the internet to figure out what could be wrong. Hmm ... ear infection? Hematoma?!! Ear mites?!!! Eeeeek! Time to visit the vet! Except, we were in Vancouver. Wait, I have a vague memory of someone saying that the Granville Island Vet Hospital is pretty decent. And we were going to hit the public market anyway.

That hospital is awesome. I have pretty high standards after going to Redwood Animal Hospital, but this place rules. And Dr.Adam is awesome. Yes, it was a ear infection. And no ear mites! Phew! And she did a full physical on him. And I even got to peek into his gross ears :)

Ate a few treats, got a good brushing from the tech there and Vodka was all ready to go play again!

Thanks GIVH!

Whistler rocks - year round!

We were in Whistler on sunday and finally got a chance to check out the new bike park. It looks awesome! Might just have to try that out this year :)

It is pretty cool to hit a place that still has spring skiing happening on one mountain, while the other mountain has its slopes paved for mountain biking trails. And they even had a li'l zipline going near the whistler gondola - very cool!

Since dogs are not allowed in the gondolas (sucks!), Vodka and I decided to hike up Blackcomb while my mum, et al went up the gondola. It was pretty fun, we just followed the path of the ropes up the mountain. It was a beautiful day, and the moutain looks so different without the snow. And it is steep! Just as we went up this wicked gully, I saw a black creature about 1/4 mile up the mountain. Wait, make that 2 creatures. Mama bear and baby bear! Weeeee!!! First wildlife sighting in Whistler (and I don't have a pic :( ). We wandered up another 100m or so, but I decided to turn back - didn't think Vodka would end up protecting me from a disgruntled mama bear! :)

House of Dosas - quite yummy!

As part of our quest for desi food in Vancouver, we hit House of Dosas on Kingsway - the place had no ambience whatsoever, but we heard good reviews about it.

The menu had enough dosa options to justify the name, so we got all excited! We started off with the pakoras (my mum was really leery about this, she didn't think the place "looked" desi enough!), but these were among the best restaurant pakoras we've had in a while. *yum* Then we ordered several dosas - the madras masala, paneer dosa and even an uthappam - which was awesome! The dosas were slightly tart, just the way we like it. And the paper dosa was super crisp and hot.

The carrot chutney was real tasty, but the sambar left a lot to be desired - not spicy enough, and definitely lacked tamarind. The one weird thing was that they had run out of idli podi (it was called "gunpowder" on the menu :) ) - that is plain wrong! No south indian restaurant should *ever* run out of this!

And we loved that the plates were all shaped like banana leaves - in fact, we initially thought that they were serving us on fresh leaves - nice touch! :) And the waiter talked to us in Tamil, haven't heard that in a restaurant in a while! Next time, I'll have to try their rava dosa.

The new and huge La Spiga

So, we finally got to check out La Spiga after they moved into their new location on 12th. This place is ginormous (the Lipp should've trademarked that word when he could've!). And we dindined with Vee and Martin (*yay*!)

Verdict:
The space is incredible - we were gawking at the high ceilings and the stark interior all evening. The patio is awesome - especially the chef's table. The huge inside space is well partitioned by the booths in the middle and the long couch - love that couch! And the decor is great - lots of old copper pots and pans on shelves, stark lighting, solid wooden tables, very nice.

The food - Not mindblowing, but pretty good. I'll give it a 3/5. The piadinas - as good as ever! The appetizers and salads looked a lot more interesting than the entrees. The roasted beet salad was pretty good, as was the cheese plate (especially that super creamy stinky brie!). My lentil&tomato soup was clearly oversalted and the flavors did not really stand out. The roasted potatoes were disappointing too - some of them seemed too dry, though drenched in olive oil. Pupp liked his risotto (the zucchini base was an interesting twist), Vee thought the pork was pretty decent and Martin said the lasagna was passable (this coming from the guy who makes the best lasagna I've *ever* eaten in my life!).

The wine list looks pretty impressive, and the Barolo we ordered was delicious.

Eat Gratin, be happy!

So behind on my postings. *sigh*

So, I finally got to try out a recipe from the latest Jay Solomon book that I bought a couple of weeks ago (Taste of the Tropics) - I love, absolutely love this book! I started off wanting to make this squash and scallions gratin, but I had no squash! Or scallions! But I did have a ton of fresh asparagus :) And shallots :)

Asparagus and Shallots Gratin
=======================
1 bundle asparagus - chopped into 1' pieces
1 T olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced (yes, I went overboard, like always!)
4-6 shallots - chopped fine
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup milk
1/2 t dried thyme
1 t ground black pepper
1/4 t allspice
1/2 t sea salt

Heat oven to 350F.

Lightly saute the asparagus and shallots in olive oil, add spices and coconut milk and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes. Add the milk and simmer for another 3-4 minutes.
Oooppppsss! Apparently, I needed breadcrumbs to get the crunchy consistency for the gratin. Hmm, let's use tortilla chips instead. So, I broke up a bunch of chips, tossed them into the veggie mixture, and poured it all into a casserole and let bake for 10-12 minutes.

Add a dash of hot sauce and some flatbread = *happy*

Origin (of original recipe :) ) : West Indies

Icon Grill - *ick*

Icon has a new mac'n'cheese appetizer - fried mac with a jalapeno queso dip. Woooo!!! Somehow, they just managed to make a bigger artery clogger than their regular mac'n'cheese :) It does taste yummy, but that was the beginning and end of the good food at Icon.

To start off, our waitress got our drinks all mixed up - strangely enough, she heard 'Orange Drop' as 'Bartender's Margarita' - we were quite puzzled when our drinks didn't show up in cocktail glasses, and even more stymied when they tasted of tequila!

The menu had an interesting sounding tuna entree - thinly sliced, seared ahi tuna with a wasabi vinaigrette based salad - sounds good? That's what I thought too. And I ordered it. My first seafood entree ever! *so* excited. Until the food appeared. Somehow, my tuna had transformed into this giant thickly sliced steak-like "thingy". Ok, fine, I'm not intimidated (yet!), I'll try it ... one mouthful ... *ick*. This tuna tasted like it had absorbed all the salt in the ocean and then some! And it tasted like leather. *bleh*. And that damn salad was replete with celery. *grr*. Our other entree was the rock shrimp penne - apparently quite passable, that was a relief.

Yes, we complained about it. Yes, they took it off the tab. But for something that gross, they should really be paying me for it!

Flatbread Pizzas - a yummy snack!

Last week, I was craving pizza, but not the super greasy cheesy kind. I wanted the light flavorful kind I had eaten in Greece a few years ago. And I wanted it fast! :) And Trader Joe's helped me out here (I *love* that store!) with their mediterranean flatbread. I made this olive-garlic-tomato tapenade that I spread on the flatbread, loaded it up with sliced red onions, thinly sliced potatoes, olives and sprinkled it with this divine gouda laced with fennel. And baked it for about 8 minutes at 400F.

*drool*

Monsoon - *yum*

We were craving pan-Asian food and decided to hit Monsoon last friday. And it made us *happy*, very *happy*.

We ordered this Pinot Noir from Andrew Rich Wines that totally knocked our socks off - we actually finished up the entire bottle in the restaurant and tottered out feeling quite blissful! Seems like WSJ liked it quite a bit too!

Monsoon is one of those restaurants where I have such a hard time deciding what I want to eat - the plethora of choice astounds me :) And now that I'm dabbling in seafood, it gets even harder! So, after much dithering, we had to go for my old faves - the crispy tofu with peppers and mushrooms (the caramelized onions were divine) as well as the green beans with kabocha squash. Ok, this was simply fabulous. The squash was *so* incredibly flavorful, I'm at a total loss for words to explain it. Well, pupp ate it :) And the halibut - Oh so good!!! It originally tasted a little bland, but dribbling a little soy sauce on it made a world of difference - the super flaky fish suddenly exploded with flavor! And the morning glory salad was so refreshing - *very* unique.

*drool*

Gipsy Kings - @ the Paramount

Finally, finally, we got to watch the Gipsy Kings live on saturday. We were really hoping that they would feature in the Chateau Ste Michelle summer concert line-up (which seems reasonably unexciting this year), but that was not to be. I've always liked the acoustics at the Paramount - admittedly, I've watched more shows and musicals there than concerts, but the sound plus the ambience (I loooovvve those fabulous ceilings!) always seemed to create a pleasant experience, so this actually seemed like a pretty good alternative. And once we got there (seated in the middle of the first balcony), we got quite excited about the show.

The instruments were awesome - amazing strumming at lightning speeds, incredible drums, even the keyboard guy was belting out some mean tunes! What was disappointing? The vocals! Somehow, it seemed like the vocal microphones didn't quite cut it and the usually resonant voices sounded quite muted and fuzzy. Quite a disappointment.

Still, it was still a really fun show. Those damn fire codes prevented us from dancing away in the open spaces in the balcony, but we still shook it as much as we could :) I absolutely love flamenco music, and I especially love GK - they've made the music more approachable and open and joyful. And yes, they did perform our faves: La Dona, Bamboleo, Volare, Bem Bem Maria, ... the works!

*happy* :)

International Potluck Night

a.k.a. - Serious food orgy! :)

Waaaay overdue post! A few weeks ago, I think Autumn and Lisa came up with this idea of doing a potluck where we all cooked food from cuisines that we hadn't really cooked much from before. Such a great idea. So we planned it out, May 19th was the day - at Daria's place, perfect way to warm her new house (and take her cute kitchen apart! :))

This is how we did it: each person/couple wrote out a country on a scrap of paper and we then drew lots. Daria got Vietnam, T&A got Russia, C&L - Costa Rica, A&J - Indonesia, us - Japan. And Jeremy picked Switzerland for dessert (apparently his initial choice - Australia is not sweet-friendly! :) and we picked Italy.

It was fun! And super yummy! And we kind of ended up with a good assortment of food. We tried to replicate the famous Dark Army from Vij as the drink of the eve. It turned out pretty decent, but could be better.

Basic Recipe:
===========
A shot each of lemon-ginger juice, simple syrup, mango juice, lime juice. Muddle these up with 1-1.5 shots of amber rum. Serve on ice. Sprinkle with a pinch of freshly ground garam masala. *hic*!

We started off noshing on these yummy baked plantains with guacamole and a blackbean dip (Costa Rica). The Russian entree was beety borscht along with this dark rye-like bread (lame! I've already forgotten what it actually had!). The borscht was really flavorful and smooth. The Vietnamese salad was awesome - it had mangoes, it *had* to be awesome! :) The noodle salad was super yummy too - the spicy limey dressing was seriously tasty - I was ready to drink it up! The tilapia on a bed of rice/beans/oranges/veggies was really light and flavorful.

And we made sushi - our first attempt! Obviously, spicy tuna rolls (we couldn't really find any other sushi grade fish at Whole Foods!). The tuna was so tasty - almost melting in the mouth. We marinated it in a sauce of the Snappy Dragon spicy sauce (*so* good!) along with a little wasabi. After marinating for a few hours, we rolled it with scallions, avocados and some stealth wasabi. The rolls came out looking *okay*, they definitely got better as we rolled more. And Pupp's rolling was *way* better than mine! :) But it was fun, we loved it and we'll do it again!

Dessert was this great chocolate cake with a mop of frosting - very yummy! We made this Cassata alla Siciliana - it was a serious flop! *so* sad! Firstly, the pound cake from Whole Foods was awful - dense and lifeless. And we could not find any candied fruit, so we used chopped dried fruits - NOT the same. *bleh*. I'll have to rework this recipe sometime.

Anyway, Daria's house was well-warmed (and a minor mess!). *happy*

Soup of the day - Beetless Borscht

Actually, soup of the friday before last :)

My mom and I were talking about soup recipes and we decided to try out this beetless borscht - a sweet'n'sour version of it. We made this one with oodles of cabbage (PCC has been carrying some really fresh and flavorful cabbage lately) and a bunch of fresh corn and it turned out great. A really light soup - very drinkable on a warm evening.

Recipe:
======
1 cabbage - grated - I usually hand cut them instead of using a food processor, the longer strands of cabbage seem to give out more flavor
4 ears of yellow corn - steam these and scrape off the kernels
1 red onion - finely chopped
4 T rice vinegar
1 t balsamic vinegar
1T brown sugar
freshly ground pepper, kosher salt
fresh dill
2" ginger, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 green chilly - all ground up
a li'l olive oil

Saute the onion in the olive oil, add the G+G+G paste to it.
Once the onions seem cooked, add the cabbage cook covered till the cabbage is mostly done.
Add the corn kernels and cook some more (covered)
Once the veggies look cooked, add the vinegar, sugar, dill, pepper and salt.
Simmer uncovered for 2-3 minutes.
Use a hand blender to puree the soup a little - this blends the flavors, but does not make the soup creamy and smooth like the regular borscht - which works much better with the sweet'n'sour flavors of this soup.

Perfect accompaniment: potato bread (especially if it is from Macrina :) )

Vancouver - A gastronomic adventure - Part II

Sunday morning, Vodka and I headed off to one of our top 10 running spots - Stanley Park. The weather was much cooler than expected, but the light drizzle was really refreshing. And Vodka had a blast trying to catch the raindrops in his mouth :) This was supposed to be a long run day, but expecting to run 16 miles with Vodka is ... sheer foolishness! So, we ran 6 miles instead - around Lost Lagoon - and we saw *so* many birds - swans, Canadian geese and even a couple of blue herons.

I've heard a lot about how cool Kitsilano is, but had only been there once - so decided to find a brunch place there. We walked all around the neighborhood (it is really pretty), headed down to the beach - really fun (in spite of how cold it had gotten), can't wait to head there on a warm sunny day. We finally headed into Sophie's Cosmic Cafe for brunch - several folks have commented about this being a touristy brunch spot, but I loved it. I went on my benedict quest and this one definitely passed the test - eggs came hard poached like requested, the hollandaise was really light and flavorful and the potatoes were fabulous! Except I got enough to keep me going for another 2 meals! And they even have a house hot sauce - not fiery enough for me, but really tart and tasty!

Vancouver - A gastronomic adventure - Part I

*lots* to catch up on, this last week has been way too busy!

So, last weekend was a long-awaited trip up to Vancouver - delightful as always. Obviously, we stayed at our fave hotel - Pacific Palisades where Vodka was treated like royalty - he even got his own doggy basket of goodies! :)

We've never really explored Gastown before, so Vodka and I wandered off to check out the oldest neighborhood of Vancouver - reminds me a lot of Pioneer Square - paved stone streets, some derelict buildings, but oozing old world charm. We hit this really fun restaurant/lounge - Chill Winston. They have a great cocktail list and some really fun food too - a thin-crust pizza with a garlic-chickpea base with cauliflowers, broccoli and onions - very different, very tasty. But the killer was the organic greens salad - one of the best I've ever had - the fig and grapeseed oil vinaigrette was fabulous.

And obviously, we hit Vij's for dinner! And it was divine, like always. Seriously, Vij's is the biggest inspiration for the restaurant that I hope to have someday. I love everything about this place - hanging out at the bar sipping a Mangalore (or my new fave - the Dark Army), nibbling on the delicious snacks from the trays that are constantly passed around, chatting with the staff there who are more than happy to share their incredibly imaginative recipe ideas, watching Vikram wander around his restaurant constantly checking on his guests. And to top it all, the food is *divine*. Like always, I ordered the jackfruit in the cardamom and cumin masala - this is definitely in my top 10 appetizers ever. And this time, we tried a new entree - zucchini koftas in a pomegranate curry - fabulous. And the laddoos were to die for - freshly made khoa blended with sugar and crushed almonds. *yum*

The new Spazzo

My friend Vimla and I headed to the newly opened Spazzo in Redmond Town Center for lunch yesterday. We used to love the original Spazzo's (in the top floor of the Key Bank building when it was dishing out really fun greek food) and were really sorry to see it go.

The new Spazzo is huge, sleek and was packed for lunch, and we could only snag an uncomfortably positioned table in the bar area. We started off with ... a glass of water :) Their water was yummy - steeped with lemon and cucumber (never had that before)! We weren't super hungry so we just had the funghi with polenta and shaved parmesan - really tasty, but they went overboard with the truffle oil. The Roquette salad was great - it had a peppery vinaigrette dressing and came with these divine roasted bell peppers.

Got to go back for dinner (even if it is in boring RTC!)

An almost perfect dinner

And I'm only saying that because nothing is perfect, right? (And there was no tuna in our meal!)

Last night, we made the simplest, most flavorful blackbean soup we've ever had. I wasn't super convinced about the recipe when we started, it almost seemed too simple - no tomatoes, no corn, hmm ... was this going to be super plain? No! It was absolutely divine. Really flavorful and light. The recipe called for a tsp of sugar, but we tossed in 1/2 cup of white wine instead and it totally did the trick. Also, we added a ton of garlic (obviously!) and some grated ginger too which gave the soup some extra zing.
Recipe source: Soup, a Way of Life

I absolutely loved the rice dish we also cooked up (apparently, it was carbo-load day!) - probably my fave coconut rice ever. Growing up, we always ate coconut rice containing freshly grated coconut and spices. But this time, we cooked the rice in unsweetened diluted coconut milk instead. Threw in a bunch of roasted cashews, spiced it with roasted red chillies, cumin, mustard and urad dal ==> *very* happy!

And we opened our first white wine of the season - an Albarino - *delicious*!

Cafe Campagne - a must for brunch

Lauren and I headed to the market this morning in our quest for brunch and decided to brave the wait at Campagne. And it was truly worth the wait. I've always felt that their breakfast potatoes are among the best I've ever had. And today we discovered that their Oeufs de cocotte is absolutely divine (Artery-clogging? Probably, but absolutely worth it!). The eggs were perfectly done (obviously hard poached!) and tasted fabulous with the leek cream - which was so light and flavorful, topped off with just the right amount of freshly ground pepper. And the baguette was so crunchy and fresh, perfect for cleaning up the last dregs of the leek cream in our mini skillets :)

And they do dish up a pretty happy mocha too!

The best tater tots ever!

I was famished after my long run yesterday and was craving a sandwich, or maybe potatoes! But it was late - past 4 pm, so my choices were limited. I was originally headed for the Baguette Box (they serve a divine squash sandwich!), but detoured, for reasons unknown, to the Six Arms instead. And found that they have tater tots on their menu! Wait, they have cajun tater tots! *sweet*! I mean *spicy*! And yummy!

The new Asteroid Cafe - good as ever!

We hit the Asteroid for a Dining Out for Life dindin. It was our first visit to the new digs in Fremont - vastly different from the original cozy layout in Wallingford. The new space is *huge*! It looks pretty cool but doesn't quite have the personal feel of the old space.

We ordered a bottle of the tried and tested Renato Ratti - yummy as ever! The appetizer of the day was bruschette brushed with 2 dips - the first one was an eggplant concoction, the second had a parsnip base - very different, it had an almost limey tangy aftertaste.

I got the Penne al Pomodoro - the goat cheese was divine - the last time I had such fresh goat cheese was at the Madison farmers' market last october! The penne was al dente, the tomatoes were fresh, all typical of good old Asteroid. Pupp got the pork special with polenta (seemed a little too runny, but tasted good). Obviously, I ate all the asparagus (Yay! for the fresh crop!) and we got a side of absolutely delicious, perfectly cooked fingerling potatoes. I can't wait to cook more of these (the Broadway Market often carries the best fingerlings!)

All in all, the meal made us *happy*! :)

Also, we noticed that they have a fabulous cocktail happy hour that lasts till midnight - a good option the next time we hit a show in Fremont.

GH II - *wow*!

This has got to be one of the most entertaining games *ever* made (not like I'm any expert on games!) - I can't wait to play this again. And that is inspite of how much I suck at it. After failing to even finish 'Sweet Child of Mine' twice in a row, I finally racked up a passing percentage (that I've obviously forgotten! :) ). But last night was pretty fun and I even managed to sneak in a medium game (courtesy of Autumn who has become a serious GH junkie!).

And the horse head cheat is a total riot!

Most common review comment for GH II: "Highly addictive." I've got to agree, I even dreamt of this game last night!

That Cafe Flora

dishes up a pretty yummy brunch. We finally managed to get in there on sunday without an hour long wait (we called and put our names down, *so* clever!)

I can't remember the last time I got anything sweet for brunch, but the waffle looked *so* delicious that I finally went for it (obviously after waffling over several of the egg dishes and finally running behind the waiter to change my order!) The apples were delicious with just the right hint of cinnamon and the waffle was really light and crispy. And I had the polenta to offset the sweetness, so I was happy. And pupp's spinach scramble was quite tasty too!

Oh, they also make a really strong mocha. Kept me bouncing the rest of the day.

We love you, Black Cod!

Actually, we love eating you! (Sorry!)

We had a whole bunch of cod sitting in the freezer, so we decided to try something new in honor of Daria. After much debating, we settled on this sesame glaze recipe from FoodTV. But, but we couldn't grill it!!! So, we marinated it instead and sauteed it in one of those fabulous copper bottom pans. Funny what a difference that makes! The cod was fabulous, but we overglazed it - the sauce was really potent and we had originally portioned it for a lot more fish, but decided we didn't need that much fish (and obviously forgot to cut down on our glaze portions!) :)

Our sides were pretty yummy - seasoned asparagus, baked potatoes and carrots and ... mac'n'cheese! Weeee!!!

Konono No1 - #1? Hell, yes!

I love african beats. And I love the uniqueness of this band - their primary instrument is the likembe - except it is hooked upto these homemade megaphones. Add to that some incredible drums, a couple of deep african vocalists who can truly shake a leg and you have a really fun show.

The music was a lot more trancy than we expected, but it almost seemed to have a rock aspect to it too (maybe because of the drums? maybe because of the decibel level?) It was definitely repetitive, but incredibly dancy - almost seemed like our feet could move reflexively to the music. Very comforting and earthy :)

This was the first time I heard Konono and I found them really fascinating. The female vocalist was awesome - she reminded me a lot of Janelle (my first afro-cuban teacher who so rhythmically shook her booty in spite of her bulging 7 month belly!). The male singer was a blast, high-energy and he loved showing us his dance moves. But my fave was the older thumb-pianist. (Guess this was Mingiedi - the founder) - he seemed so blissful playing his likembe.

The Triple Door mentioned that they were going to move stuff around to make dancing room and we were wondering how they could "move" seating around in the Mainstage area. Well, they didn't! They just didn't put any extra tables in the front area - so we had about a 5' wide stretch to cram all our dancing selves into!

Very fun, can't wait to hear them again!